Staying Ahead of Myself
Of course, there is getting ahead of oneself.
That statement implies this is a rare and odd occurring thing; however, as it is my default mode, having half a dozen things in the pipeline is a way of life. The predicament, therefore, becomes practicing patience and not jumping the queue with the newest, latest, and greatest warp.
I am a list person.
I take time and great care to compose my weaving list, including which projects are best suited to each loom.
As all three Macombers are now 8-shaft looms with both plain and sectional beams, I have removed some of the limitations involved with assigning projects to looms.
The major factors remaining are basically weaving width and the number of heddles per shaft (which is also a function of weaving width, but a separate consideration entirely).
The largest loom at 56” can do everything the other two (32” and 24”) can do. He is the most versatile, but he requires more physical exertion to weave on, even in plain weave, because his metal harnesses weigh significantly more than those on either of the other two looms.
If I were limited to one loom, the Beast would be the obvious choice; however, he may not be the best choice for retirement (which is still ten or more years away) because those harnesses are heavy.
While he is able to do everything the other looms can do, it does not mean I should use him for everything. I really should save him for the “highest and best use” projects.
At the moment, I have four projects waiting to load onto him:
3/2 cotton bath towels
4/2 cotton bath towels
8/2 cottolin waffle weave bath towels
10/2 cotton sarong fabric
None of these can be woven on either of the other two looms, as all require a weaving width greater than 32”.
Double width weaving is an option. This is a technique where one may literally weave twice the width of a loom and making 48” wide fabric on a 24” loom. This is done by weaving two layers of cloth with one edge open and the other closed (the fold).
Double width weaving will not work with any of these projects, as I need all 8 shafts for pattern. To make double width plain weave, I would need four shafts. To do a four shaft pattern, I would need eight shafts. Thus, for the 8 shaft patterns I have in mind, I would need sixteen.
At the moment, the Beast is sporting 24” wide hand dyed tea towels.
This is a case where emotion clearly overrode logic and planning...twice.
In mid-March, I finished a pair of wool overshot blankets on the Beast.
They were each 50” x 60”.
I immediately followed up with a ten yard run of hand dyed baby blankets, which were woven 40” wide.
Fortunately, I was so enchanted with them, they took exactly two weeks to weave. They fell off the loom on March 20th.
Both of those projects could only have been woven on the Beast.
The plan was to dress Beast with the first run of bath towels; however, I got ahead of myself with another hand dyed warp for tea towels, which should have gone on either of the smaller looms, but they were fully warped. The 32” Lil Miss had a hand dyed warp and the 24” Meg had a 20 yard warp on her sectional beam.
My goal to begin the towels was June 1st.
I rationalized I had plenty of time to get to the towels by June, so I warped Beast with the dyed yarn...
I became distracted with Lil Miss.
I finished her warp on April 15th, and promptly loaded her sectional beam with a 35 yard warp.
Incidentally, as soon as I warped her, I promptly forgot it was a 35 yard warp and actually believed it to be a 30 yard warp...but that’s a story for another day.
Just know, I devoted the end of last week getting twenty-something towels off Lil Miss:
I returned to the Beast and the stripes towels. Those came off the loom on April 19th.
At that point, I should have warped the Beast for the bath towels...
Just one thing though, I had the wild idea of weaving fabric for a duvet cover for my bed, hand dyed fabric for a duvet cover...
I dyed the thread on April 13th and beamed it on the Beast on April 19th.
It came off the loom on May 1st.
Honestly, I did not feel bad about jumping the queue with this project because the Beast was the only loom, which could handle the weaving width, and it was such a joy from beginning to end.
However, we were into May, and I was twitching to beat that June 1 deadline to load the bath towels.
Well, apparently, I was not that concerned about the bath towels because I dyed another warp for tea towels and promptly loaded the Beast with them on May 2nd.
Not the most logical decision, but my heart sang the moment I began weaving them!
Oh, gosh. I LOVE these towels!
So, Monday is June 1st.
Three of nine towels are done.
Guess what I am doing this week, in addition to the day job?
That statement implies this is a rare and odd occurring thing; however, as it is my default mode, having half a dozen things in the pipeline is a way of life. The predicament, therefore, becomes practicing patience and not jumping the queue with the newest, latest, and greatest warp.
I am a list person.
I take time and great care to compose my weaving list, including which projects are best suited to each loom.
As all three Macombers are now 8-shaft looms with both plain and sectional beams, I have removed some of the limitations involved with assigning projects to looms.
The major factors remaining are basically weaving width and the number of heddles per shaft (which is also a function of weaving width, but a separate consideration entirely).
The largest loom at 56” can do everything the other two (32” and 24”) can do. He is the most versatile, but he requires more physical exertion to weave on, even in plain weave, because his metal harnesses weigh significantly more than those on either of the other two looms.
If I were limited to one loom, the Beast would be the obvious choice; however, he may not be the best choice for retirement (which is still ten or more years away) because those harnesses are heavy.
While he is able to do everything the other looms can do, it does not mean I should use him for everything. I really should save him for the “highest and best use” projects.
At the moment, I have four projects waiting to load onto him:
3/2 cotton bath towels
4/2 cotton bath towels
8/2 cottolin waffle weave bath towels
10/2 cotton sarong fabric
None of these can be woven on either of the other two looms, as all require a weaving width greater than 32”.
Double width weaving is an option. This is a technique where one may literally weave twice the width of a loom and making 48” wide fabric on a 24” loom. This is done by weaving two layers of cloth with one edge open and the other closed (the fold).
Double width weaving will not work with any of these projects, as I need all 8 shafts for pattern. To make double width plain weave, I would need four shafts. To do a four shaft pattern, I would need eight shafts. Thus, for the 8 shaft patterns I have in mind, I would need sixteen.
At the moment, the Beast is sporting 24” wide hand dyed tea towels.
This is a case where emotion clearly overrode logic and planning...twice.
In mid-March, I finished a pair of wool overshot blankets on the Beast.
They were each 50” x 60”.
I immediately followed up with a ten yard run of hand dyed baby blankets, which were woven 40” wide.
Fortunately, I was so enchanted with them, they took exactly two weeks to weave. They fell off the loom on March 20th.
Both of those projects could only have been woven on the Beast.
The plan was to dress Beast with the first run of bath towels; however, I got ahead of myself with another hand dyed warp for tea towels, which should have gone on either of the smaller looms, but they were fully warped. The 32” Lil Miss had a hand dyed warp and the 24” Meg had a 20 yard warp on her sectional beam.
My goal to begin the towels was June 1st.
I rationalized I had plenty of time to get to the towels by June, so I warped Beast with the dyed yarn...
I became distracted with Lil Miss.
I finished her warp on April 15th, and promptly loaded her sectional beam with a 35 yard warp.
Incidentally, as soon as I warped her, I promptly forgot it was a 35 yard warp and actually believed it to be a 30 yard warp...but that’s a story for another day.
Just know, I devoted the end of last week getting twenty-something towels off Lil Miss:
I returned to the Beast and the stripes towels. Those came off the loom on April 19th.
At that point, I should have warped the Beast for the bath towels...
Just one thing though, I had the wild idea of weaving fabric for a duvet cover for my bed, hand dyed fabric for a duvet cover...
I dyed the thread on April 13th and beamed it on the Beast on April 19th.
It came off the loom on May 1st.
Honestly, I did not feel bad about jumping the queue with this project because the Beast was the only loom, which could handle the weaving width, and it was such a joy from beginning to end.
However, we were into May, and I was twitching to beat that June 1 deadline to load the bath towels.
Well, apparently, I was not that concerned about the bath towels because I dyed another warp for tea towels and promptly loaded the Beast with them on May 2nd.
Not the most logical decision, but my heart sang the moment I began weaving them!
Oh, gosh. I LOVE these towels!
So, Monday is June 1st.
Three of nine towels are done.
Guess what I am doing this week, in addition to the day job?
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